Hey there,

A few years after I retired, I was repairing some fence boards when I noticed a bird building a nest in a tree. I stopped what I was doing and watched it for a bit. Normally, I probably would have just kept doing what I was doing. There was just something about it. The dedication and determination to build that nest one twig at a time.

So, with a few boards I had left over, I decided to build a couple of birdhouses and hang them up around the yard. I thought, maybe a bird would use one. Who knows.

Then, after a bit, one of them got used.

I remember seeing a bird going in and out of it and thinking, well, I guess that worked. After that I built another one. Then another. Before long I found myself checking the houses whenever I was outside just to see if anybody had moved in.

I never planned on becoming a birdhouse builder, and I'm not really a bird watcher. But I have to admit, I do find myself watching them more and more. I definitely never planned on making a website about any of it. It just sort of happened.

Fenceboard Flyers is really just me building a few birdhouses from time to time. They're not factory perfect by any means, and I don't mind that they aren't. Some boards are straight and some, let's just say, are full of character. That's the part I like about it, I guess. I never know how they'll turn out till the end.

Sometimes I'll spend quite a while on one, doing more thinking about other things than working on the birdhouse. Other times I'll go a while without making anything at all. No schedule and no certain number to make.

I ask myself sometimes why I'm even doing it. Why even have the website? I'm not actively selling the birdhouses. Honestly, I don't really know.

There's just a little bit of peacefulness about building them. It gives my mind a place to wander. Eventually I started writing down some of the things. A bird doing something I hadn't noticed before. Something that happened while cutting grass. An old memory that popped into my head while I was doing whatever.

Those stories became The Picket Board.

I also started keeping Birdhouse Notes about some of the things I'm learning along the way. I'm not an expert on any of it. It's just what I'm doing, what I've noticed, and for whatever reason seems to be working.

So that's pretty much Fenceboard Flyers. A few birdhouses, a few things I'm learning, a few stories, and whatever else happens to catch my attention along the way.

I'm glad you stopped by.

JT